Nandi bear
This article is under construction : Other names: Chemisit, chemosit, duba, engargiyar, geteit, giant forest hyena, kabiniro, kerit, khodumodumo, kichwa mutwe, koddoelo, Mubende beast, ngargiya, ngoloko, ntebagarnyar, rwujigar, sabrookoo, shivuverre, too. : Country reported: Kenya, Uganda The Nandi bear or chemisit is a large cryptid reported from the highlands of western Kenya and Uganda,Eberhart, George (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology''Hobley, C. W. "Unidentified Beasts in East Africa", ''Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 7 (1913)Percival, A. Blayney "The Chemosit", Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 8 (1914) described as a dangerous animal like a hyena, a bear, or a baboon.Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955) On the Track of Unknown Animals''Coleman, Loren & Clark, Jerome (1999) ''Cryptozoology A to Z''Shuker, Karl (1995) ''In Search of Prehistoric Survivors It was said to have been more common before the rinderpest epidemic at the end of the 19th Century. Bernard Heuvelmans and others have identified the Nandi bear as an amalgamation of various different animals, including perhaps two genuine cryptids: a giant hyena and a giant baboon. Etymology The Nandi bear is named for the Nandi people who live around Kapsabet, an area where the animal was frequently seen. Geoffrey Williams, one of the first eyewitnesses, compare the animal he saw to a bear, and the name stuck. However, prior to the 1930's the name "chemisit" or "chemosit" was more commonly used. In the first decades of the 20th Century it was often referred to simply as an unknown or unidentified animal of the Uasin Gishu, and later of the Magadi Railway. "Chemisit" comes from the Kalenjin for "devil". Description Physical evidence Tracks Nandi bear track.png|(1) Rough sketch of the track found by F. Schindler near the Magadi Railway. Skull Sightings Undated C. W. Hobley wrote that several workers during the construction of the Magadi Railway saw the tracks of a strange animal. A Mr. F. Schindler saw and sketched this track. At some point shortly before 1918, a "gadett" appeared on the farm of Cara Buxton, where three sheep were missing. All ten were found, seven dead and three alive, and all of them without brains. Over the next ten days the same thing happened to fifty-seven goats and sheep, of which thirteen were found alive. The locals in the area described the culprit as walking on two legs, snatching babies, and killing men. Eventually it was tracked to a ravine and speared to death, whereupon it was discovered to be a very large spotted hyena. "It had evidently turned brain-eater through some sort of madness".Buxton, Cara "The 'Gadett' or Brain-Eater" The Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 13 (1918) The story is similar to that of the Malawi terror beast. Charles Stoneham saw what his friends believed was a Nandi bear near the Kipsanoi River in Sotik. He described it as being the size of a lion but moving differently, with a pig-like snout, and an enormous tail the size of a tree trunk. Its ears were large, circular, and transparent. He rushed indoors to grab a rifle, but by the time he returned the animal was fleeing. 1905 The first recorded sighting of the Nandi bear was made in around 1905 by Geoffrey Williams, who was on an expedition to the Uasin Gishu in western British East Africa. He saw a 5-foot-high animal around 30 yards away, sitting like a zoo bear, with a long head and small, pointed ears. It ran with a sideways canter. :"I was traveling with a cousin on the Uasingishu just after the Nandi expedition, and, of course, long before there was any settlement up there. We had been camped ... near the Mataye and were marching towards the Sirgoit Rock when we saw the beast ... I saw a large animal sitting up on its haunches no more than 30 yards away. Its attitude was just that of a bear at the 'Zoo' asking for buns, and I should say it must have been nearly 5 feet high ... it dropped forward and shambled away towards the Sirgoit with what my cousin always describes as a sort of sideways canter. I snatched my rifle and took a snapshot at it as it was disappearing among the rocks, and, though I missed it, it stopped and turned its head round to look at us ... In size it was, I should say, larger than the bear that lives in the pit at the 'Zoo' and it was quite as heavily built. The fore quarters were very thickly furred, as were all four legs, but the hind quarters were comparatively speaking smooth or bare ... the head was long and pointed and exactly like that of a bear ... I have not a very clear recollection of the ears beyond the fact that they were small, and the tail, if any, was very small and practically unnoticeable. The color was dark ..."''Williams, Geoffrey "An Unknown Animal on the Uasingishu", ''Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 4 (1912) When this sighting was finally published in 1912, it piqued interest in the unknown animal of the Uasin Gishu. 1912 In 1912 a Major Toulson encountered a long-haired black beast on the Uasin Gishu, which had just attempted to raid his camp's kitchen. It ran with a shuffling walk and was around 18 to 20 inches at the shoulder He later described his encounter to anthropologist C. W. Hobley: :""... One of my boys came into my room and said that a leopard was close to the kitchen. I rushed out at once and saw a strange beast making off: it appeared to have long hair behind and was rather low in front. I should say it stood about 18 in. to 20 in. at the shoulder; it appeared to be black, with a gait similar to that of a bear--a kind of shuffling walk. Unfortunately it was nearly dark at the time and I did not get a fair view of the head. :"Several Dutchmen had asked me a few days before what the strange animal was on the plateau; they said it was like a bear, but they had only seen it at dusk; it turned on their dogs and chased them off. They described it as a thick-set beast and it was making a peculiar moaning cry."Hobley, C. W. "On Some Unidentified Beasts", ''Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 6 (1913)'' 1913 There were two sightings of the Nandi bear in March 1913. The first of these, which lacks a specific date, was made by N. E. F. Corbett, the District Commissioner of Eldoret in British East Africa: :"I was having lunch by a wooded stream, the Sirgoi River, just below Toulson's farm ... to my surprise I walked right into the beast. It was evidently drinking and was just below me, only a yard or so away ... it shambled across the stream into the bush ... I could not get a very good view, but am certain that it was a beast I have never seen before. Thick, reddish-brown hair, with a slight streak of white down the hindquarters, rather long from hock to foot, rather bigger than a hyena, with largish ears. I did not see the head properly; it did not seem to be a very heavily built animal." The second sighting, perhaps the most famous, was made by railway engineer G. W. Hickes on 8 March. He observed the animal from 50 yards away. Whilst travelling on a motor trolley he saw what appeared to be a hyena straight ahead: :"It was almost on the line when I first saw it and at that time it had already seen me and was making off at a right angle to the line ... As I got closer to the animal I saw it was not a hyena. At first I saw it nearly broadside on: it then looked about as high as a lion. In color it was tawny--about like a black-mained sic lion--with very shaggy long hair. It was short and thickset in the body, with high withers, and had a short neck and stumpy nose. It did not turn to look at me, but loped off--running with its forelegs and with both hind legs rising at the same time. As I got alongside it, it was about forty or fifty yards away and I noticed it was very broad across the rump, had very short ears, and had no tail that I could see. As its hind legs came out of the grass I noticed the legs were very shaggy right down to the feet, and that the feet seemed large..."Hickes, G. W. "Notes on the Unknown Beast Seen on the Magadi Railway" Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 6 (1913) Not long afterwards a native servant in the area saw an animal very much like the one described by Hickes, but standing on its hind legs. 1914 A Nandi bear is said to have been killed near Kapsowar in around 1914. Villagers tricked it into attacking a dummy man in the doorway of a hut, then shot it to death with arrows. 1925 In 1925 Captain William Hichens was sent out to investigate depredations made by the animal in a village in the Kenya Colony. The latest victim was a 6-year-old girl, snatched after the monster forced its way through an 8-foot boma.Newton, Michael (2009) Hidden Animals During the night his tent was attacked by something which gave a terrifying roar and carried off his pet dog. :"...the whole tent rocked; the pole to which Mbwambi was tied flew out and let down the ridge-pole, enveloping me in flapping canvas. At the same moment the most awful howl I have ever heard split the night. The sheer demoniac horror of it froze me still...I heard my pi-dog yelp just once. There was a crashing of branches in the bush, and then thud, thud, thud, of some huge beast making off. But that howl! I have heard half a dozen lions roaring in a stampede-chorus not twenty yards away; I have heard a maddened cow-elephant trumpeting; I have heard a trapped leopard make the silent night miles a rocking agony with screaming, snarling roars. But never have I heard, nor do I wish to hear again, such a howl as that of the chimiset. A trail of red spots on the sand showed where my pi-dog had gone. Beside that trail were huge footprints, four times as big as a man's, showing the imprint of three huge clawed toes, with trefoil marks like a lion's pad where the sole of the foot pressed down. But no lion ever boasted such a paw as that of the monster which had made that terrifying spoor."Hichens, William "On the Trail of the Brontosaurus: Encountes with Africa's Mystery Animals" Chamber's Journal (1927) Hichens followed the tracks and spent a week in the forest searching for the animal, but never found it or his dog. circa 1930's Captain F. D. Hislop, district commissioner of Kapsabet, saw a bear-like animal 3 feet high at the shoulder, with a small pointed head. It ran off on all fours. Hislop was sure that the animal was neither a hyena or a baboon.Report of the Game Department of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (1932-34) Also in the 1930's, Gunnar Anderssen reported that an unknown animal had killed a forest hog at Kaimosi. The animal was described to him by locals as "very big, with long black hair and a long tail carried like a dog's". Anderssen also discovered some ambigious, leopardlike tracks nearby. 1957 or 1958 Douglas Hutton shot two animals on the Chemomi Tea Estate in Kenya in either 1957 or 1958. They stood 3 feet at the shoulder and had sloping backs and heavy manes. The bodies were layed out to be seen by the workers, and were stripped to the bone by ants. These bones were identified by the Nairobi Museum as belonging to "giant forest hyenas". circa 1960's Engineer Angus McDonald was awoken in Kipkabus by an animal which invaded his hut through a window and chased him around for 5 minutes. McDonald said that it was 7 foot tall, with an apelike face, and ran as well on two legs as it did on four. Its tracks were round. The villagers identified it as a chemisit. 1981 In July 1981, a large hyena-like animal was seen in the same area where Hutton shot the "giant forest hyenas" in the 1950's. Expeditions 2010 (Destination Truth) Theories Hyena Bear Baboon Chalicothere Further cryptozoological reading *Heuvelmans, Bernard (1955) On the Track of Unknown Animals *Shuker, Karl (1995) In Search of Prehistoric Survivors Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:Africa Category:Kenya Category:Uganda